What Dog?

[Frenchie]

Oh our lab X husky was  house trained in less than a week, it was very easy too.

I'm crazy about him  [:$]    [IMG]http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r20/regine79/shadowBB.jpg[/IMG]

[valB]

Hello Richard T

Our son and his wife have a Collie X and such an easy breed to train as highly intelligent and they had him as a puppy. He very quickly became house trained, excellent with the children and he does not have an enormous appetite. We have had many types of dogs over the years and although we adore Boxers I would not suggest that breed as the are very demanding and hate being left on their own and can be very destructive with boredom. At present we have a very, very old Cocker Spaniel lady and a French rescue Labrador who has the constant desire to do a runner but fortunately cannot get out of our garden. If vet bills and care of a dog is no problem then I would say to your son go for it as so many dogs needing a loving home here in France. Apart from Christine Animal who always has dogs for rehoming the Phoenix rescue are always looking for new homes for their many dogs and at present have some really lovely dogs. Friends of ours took a dog from them and he is adorable and so eternally grateful for a loving home and will not let them out of his sight. Hope this helps you and your son to try to make a decision on what breed would be best.

[Richard T]

Thanks for all the help on this. I will be discussing the points raised with my son and hope that he makes the right decision.

Richard T

[caramia]

RichardT,

Try www.dogbreedinfo.com

You can take a 'breed quiz' to find breeds that suit you. Loads of info on all types of dogs. I did it before I got my dog and although I was hoping for "the" type of dog for me, it turned out there were plenty of breeds that would suit. But at least I had all the information in one place.

[Kitty]

What a great site, Caramia.  Thanks and welcome to the Forum.  This is the link to the site:

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/

 

[Jo]

I would recommend a collie X without hesitation, we have a collieXlab she has a beautiful temperament, is very good at letting you know if someone is coming, but has never bitten or snapped, moderate appetite, and very intelligent. On occasion she gets out, but has the brains to find her way back! We keep chickens, ducks, bantams and cats and she is fine around all of them. Oh and she didn't eat the kids either!![:D]

[Kristine]

My suggestion would be a staffordshire bull terrier . They are usually extremly good with children ,being known as "the nanny dog . They are medium sized so don't take over the whole house , yet strong and sturdy . Short haired , so when returning from muddy walks , it's not such a daunting task to brush them down , relatively hardy ,definately loyal , because they can look intimidating they are good as guard dogs , when they bark , they really sound the business, but are wonderful companions .I consider the staffie to be a "good all rounder ," nut of course we all have our favourite breeds . Good luck .

[Richard T]

[quote user="Kristine"]My suggestion would be a staffordshire bull terrier .[/quote]

This is what one of my other sons suggested. My initial reaction was to confuse it with Pit Bull Terrier (shows how much I know!) but when I researched further it looked like it might fit the bill except there was a suggestion that it needs very firm training because they're likely to be aggressive towards other dogs.

Any view on this?

Richard T

[Christine Animal]

There have been several threads on them if you do a search on here.  The Staffordshire Bull Terrier was on the dangerous dogs list by mistake, then taken off.  So before any one asks again, it's not on the dangerous dogs list as long as it has a pedigree.

So if you choose that breed, make sure you have a pedigree dog so that you can prove what it is, otherwise by its morphology it can be taken for a category I dog.  For the same reason it's not a good idea to let it run around on its own if your garden isn't fenced.

It's also very wise to get them neutered as any offspring (unless of course with another pedigree) would become Category I if they have the morphology.

 

[Jo]

My neighbours non-pedigree staffie has just killed her lurcher, I went in to help her clean up, not a sight I want to see again in a hurry.

[yvonne]

I would think alomost any of the Pastoral breeds would be suitable - these include:

 Rough and Smooth collies

Border Collies

German Shepherds

Belgian Shepherds

Shetland sheepdogs

Maremmas

Pyrenean Mountain dogs

Pyrenean Sheepdog

Bearded Collies

 

all these breeds are quick to learn and have a natural tendency to circle 'their property rarther than run off. They tend to be intensly loyal and effective guards although some of them do reqiuire significant amouts of coat care and the bigger breeds will obviously eat more. I have Belgian Shepherd Dogs and they are fine with my chickens - regarding them as part of 'their' property and will herd them given the chance - two of them are also PAT dogs ( therapy dogs) which speaks volumes for their temperament- yet they certainly let me know if anyone is approaching our property...(.we live in an isolated farmhouse in the Lincolnshire Fens )

 

I would strongly advise your son to get a bitch rather than a dog and have her spayed - the bitches in all these breeds are markedly easier than the dogs and make wonderful companions and great workers.

you can see my own dogs on www.simplesite.com/grondemon.

 

good luck

Yvonne

[yvonne]

ooops - perhaps I should have said 'female' instead - not swearing honestly !!

 

 

Yvonne

[Kristine]

Hi Christine , I realised that the staffordshire bull terrier had been taken off the catergory two list meaning that staffies do not now require a licence , but does that not apply to non- pedigree staffies as well ? By the way , I would class a non -pedigree staffie as a pure bred staffordshire bull terrier , but without papers . If it's not pure bred then whether or not it looks like a staffie , it's really a mongrel , not that I have anything at all against mongrel dogs before anyone thinks otherwise ! Sorry about your neighbours lurcher Jo , cannot comment on it as I don't know the circumstances behind the attack and kill . Was it a staffordshire bull terrier , or an "irish staffordshire bull terrier " ie pitbull .

 

 

 

[Christine Animal]

[quote user="Kristine"]

 I would class a non -pedigree staffie as a pure bred staffordshire bull terrier, but without papers.

[/quote]

 

Kristine, you may class it what you like, but how are you going to prove it if they say it has the morphology of a Pit Bull?

Please see the other threads on here concerning Staffies and where innocent dogs have been put down simply because of their morphology.  In the future they may not be put down as the law seems to be changing, but there will be strict rules on keeping them.

 

[Jo]

Sorry about your neighbours lurcher Jo , cannot comment on it as I don't know the circumstances behind the attack and kill . Was it a staffordshire bull terrier , or an "irish staffordshire bull terrier " ie pitbull .

 

It was a staffie, and the dog it killed was her father's lurcher, but it speaks volumes to say she didn't have him put down as she "didn't know who had started it".

[Christine Animal]

That's very, very sad Jo.  [:(]

  

[Kristine]

I was living in France when the law was first implemented and it appeared that "staffordshire terriers " concerned "staffordshire bull terriers . Thankfully ,  due to a lot of hard work from the french and english S.B.T. clubs this was resinded . I understood perhaps wrongly that because of that , staffies are now treated , by law , in the same manner as all the other breeds of dog not classified in either catergory .I did'nt think that they were still going to come under some restrictions .

 

[Christine Animal]

I am no specialist and I thought the same as you Kristine.  I first found out that Staffordshire Bull Terriers were not on the list, fine.  Then the questions popped up about Staffie crosses and ended up with Staffies without a pedigree as there is no way of proving what either of them are. 

When I tried to save lovely little Lily at Niort  mentioned under this thread http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1107613/ShowPost.aspx

several of us thought she could be a Staffie cross.  But the final decision fell when a judge was called in and said she had the morphology of a Pit Bull, a Pit Bull not being a breed but a morphology.  The sweetest little dog you could have met, Lily was put down.  Even the vet hated doing it.  I think of her nearly every day since.

That is this stupid law where dogs are simply judged on what they look like.  That is why so many people are against it.  A terrible story is the one of poor Kenzo who never hurt a fly, a Boxer cross, taken from his family and put down (under same thread above).

Following these queries I had a look last night if there were any sites in English about the "dangerous dogs" in France and came upon this one which has a lot of useful information, though not much in English

http://www.against-bsl.eu/index.htm

On their page Foire aux Questions, you have the answer to the non-pedigree Staffie "Il y a fort à parier qu'un Staffordshire Bull Terrier non LOF relèverait de la 1ère catégorie étant donné les caractéristiques morphologiques figurant dans l'arrêté du 27 avril 1999."

Under their page Pourquoi Soutenir le Collectif I see they have mentioned my Lily.

re, il y a fort à parier qu'un chien staffordshire bull terrier non LOF relèverait de la 1ère catégorie étant donnée les caractéristiques morphologiques figurant dans l'arrêté du 27 avril 1999.

[Kristine]

That's really awful Christine about Lilly , and whenever I visit France I always buy several of the specialist staffie , type dog magazines ,and know from the heartbreaking stories in them about various wonderful pets , but of no provable ancestry being taken from their families and killed . I truely thought that with the staffordshire bull terrier having been taken off the list that the same then would apply to staffie crosses or pure staffies with pedigree's but just not registered . After all , if it's not a crime now to be a staffordshire bull terrier , why should it be a crime to look like one ?

Breed specific dog laws , whatever the country concerned are just so wrong . At the end of the day I personally would prefer that the law would be that ALL dogs have to be muzzled in public places , then we would all be safe from any potentially dangerous dog , be it ,pitbull or yorkshire terrier , and the dogs would all be safe from each other .

I'm going to visit the sites you mentioned , so I wxpect to have a very unhappy hour or so now .